Millenium Q1 net gains 7.4 pct, beats expectations

Reuters Staff

2 Min Read

LISBON, May 8 (Reuters) - Portugal's second-largest bank Millennium bcp, posted on Monday a 7.4 percent rise in first quarter net profit to 50.1 million euros, beating expectations on the back of a strong rise in net interest income.

"The first quarter result benefitted from continued expansion in core results, which reached 254.8 million euros, a gain of 20 percent compared with the first quarter a year ago," said chief executive Nuno Amado.

Net interest income - the difference between interest charged on loans and interest paid on deposits - rose nearly 14 percent to 332.3 million euros, helped by the bank now having paid off all outstanding contingent convertible bonds(CoCo) to the government.

Still, impairments rose 27.7 percent to 203 million euros in the first quarter.

Millennium carried out a capital increase in February of 1.33 billion euros, allowing it to pay off the last 700 million euros of outstanding CoCos. China's Fosun raised its stake in Millennium to 23.92 percent in the capital hike.

Its fully-loaded core Tier 1 capital ratio rose to 11.2 percent in the first quarter, up from 10.1 percent a year earlier.